Reasons to turn down a development?

Question

Reasons to turn down a development?

Answer 1

Assuming you mean some kind of mine, factory, resort holtel, housing estate type of development.

Developments should not be turned down just for the sake of turning them down, that would be as stupid as accepting them just because some one is proposing them.

However every development has a down side as well as an upside. The developer usually is very keen to talk up the upside. Governments usually do the same. Not so many well funded people look carefully at the down side.

This could be anything from ecological effects on the area(eg ruin important habitats), negative social effects on the local communities, poor economics (the proposed development may not be the best use of resources),safety (eg. an oil refinary in the middle of a residential area is not very clever) concerns or political concerns. No point detailing all the endless posibilities with such a wide open question.

Basically the down side of a development has to be honestly evaluated and compared with the upside. Then if there is substantially more to gain than there is to loose, the development should be allowed to proceed, otherwise no. A development that only just makes it to positive territory is not worth proceeding with, as there will be better options for the use of the available resources.

Of course different people at different times place different values on things, so the developer may place high value on the economics and low value on the forest they intend to chop down. The forest owners may feel differently.

So the decisions are never simple or straight forward.